A Gift For Kou
by Sinner Cho Gonou
Summary: The Sanzo party finds a girl with a connection to Kougaiji. They keep her until they are friends, but when she gets to Kougaji, will she betray them? KouOC
1. Default Chapter

The four companions traveling to the west found the road leading into a thick wood. As they sped into the forest, the road got rougher and it began to drizzle. Hakuryuu splashed through a puddle, startling glares from three of them. Hakkai laughed at the expressions on his friend's faces. Then it started to pour. Sanzo pulled a poncho over his robe, him being the only one that remembered to bring one.

Goku shook water off his face and tried, unsuccessfully, to stuff himself under his seat. "It's too wet," he complained.

"Damn right it's too wet," Gojyo agreed. "We're all gonna freeze and die off pneumonia! Except for Mr. High-and-mighty Monk here."

"You're not going to die of pneumonia," Sanzo informed him. "And if a bit of rain is going to kill you, maybe I should shoot you now and spare you the pain."

"Hospital bills."

"What?!" The three others looked at Hakkai in bewilderment.

"If you have pneumonia, you have to go to the hospital. And if I know Gojyo, his gambling money is not nearly enough to pay the bills."

"Oh." 

"Hey Gojyo," Goku piped up. "Aren't water sprites supposed to dance naked on the flowers, playing their harp whenever it rains?"

Hakkai and Sanzo snorted into their hands as Gojyo scowled at him. "You stupid monkey! I'll make _you_ dance!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Goku retorted.

"Dumbass, button up!"

"You first dim-wit!"

"Both of you, shut up!" They looked up to see Sanzo glowering at them, hakusan in hand. They decided it would be wiser to resort to hand gestures and mouthing threats, then to get smacked.

"We're almost there." Hakkai pointed ahead where the town walls were barely visible through the trees.

Goku squinted, then frowned. "Sanzo…"

"I see."

Above the walls, a thick column of black smoke rose, drifting in the wind. 

"Maybe it's just a fire," Gojyo offered.

"And maybe I'm just a priest."

Hakuryuu speeded up and in a few minuets, they reached the gates. One of them was burned and blackened. The other was hanging from one hinge, swinging crazily in the wind.

The four of them got out of Hakuryuu, who screeched, and turned back into his natural form, curling himself around Hakkai's neck. They pushed the gate aside, and stepped into the town. 

It was a disaster area. Every house was burnt to the ground, except for the few which happened to get rained to in time. Bodies filled the street; most dead, some almost there. Piles of rubble blocked streets and sidewalks, and spilled through open doors.

Goku's golden eyes filled with sorrow at the sight that lay in front of him. "This is horrible," he breathed. "Has it gotten this bad here?"

"Demons," Gojyo informed them.

"Yea, I feel it too." Hakkai bit his lip.

As they surveyed the town, Goku tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. "Do you hear that? It sounds like someone…_crying_!" He started running over to a side street. "Maybe someone's still alive! Come on!" 

Goku turned a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. A sobbing toddler wrapped her arms around his legs, her black hair mussed and tangled. The others arrived and they too froze at the spectacle.

"Sanzo?" Goku asked helplessly, but as Sanzo turned, Gojyo scooped the child up and balanced her on his hip. She turned and buried her face in his chest, shoulders heaving with sobs.

"Hey sweetie," Gojyo asked soothingly. "What's your name?"

She looked at him, red eyes wide as she stared at him. The girl mumbled something unintelligible at him. "What's that?"

"H-Hitomi." 

"Hello Hitomi, I'm Gojyo."

The others offered their names.

"Hello. I'm Hakkai."

"Hi Hitomi! My name's Goku!"

Even Sanzo bent over and peered at her.

"I wonder if there's anyone else," Goku wrinkled his forehead.

As if on cue, a small boy, maybe ten, raced around the corner and froze, seeing Hitomi in Gojyo's arms. His eyes widened, seeing four of them, then narrowed. He put his arm up, as if to punch them and put his feet in a fighting pose. "P-put Hitomi down!" he cried. "Go away!"

"Is he gonna hurt you Gojyo?" Goku asked, grinning. 

Hitomi reached her arms out toward the boy. She laughed "Kuwiya! Kuwiya!"

He scowled, then decided they were not a threat if his sister was laughing. He stepped forward and carefully took her from Gojyo's arms. "That's _Kuriya. _Kuriya." 

Kuriya looked up at them and made a decision. He beckoned to them and cautiously led them through the town to a house in relatively good condition. Kuriya stepped up to the door; he knocked once, paused, knocked again, then knocked three times. "Secrete knock," he confided in them.

A young woman, maybe 18 opened the door and saw Kuriya. Her face relaxed before she saw the four travelers. She snatched the child from his grasp and pulled him inside.

"Satoru! It's OK! They found Hitomi!" Kuriya protested his new friend's treatment. 

She inspected them for a moment, then opened the door wider, admitting them to the slightly burned house. They filed inside, noticing how few beds there were. Satoru knelt by one of the beds, and tapped an old woman on the shoulder. "Yuki. Yukino! Wake up. We have guests and it's time to eat." 

The old woman sat up and stretched as Satoru went to the door and stuck her head out. "Taisha! Oh Taisha! Dinner!" She pulled her head back in and set plates at a burned table propped up with books. As they were sitting down on makeshift chairs from around the room, a tall young man, older then Satoru stepped into the house. Hakkai noticed he didn't use Kuriya's secrete knock. The man, Taisha, was holding a bag sagging with its weight. He set it carefully on the table and took out its contents. A slab of meat, a flask of water, some half-rotten vegetables, and a knife.

"Found it in Hitomi and Kuriya's old house," he explained, sitting down. "Other then this, it's mostly a wreck." He set the food on the nine plates, just enough to go around. 

As they set upon their meal, Hakkai quizzed Taisha about the fate of the village.

"What happened here?" Hakkai asked carefully, not wanting to awaken bad memories.

"Demons. They came, about a-hundred of them. We're alive because we were gone, up at Yuki's house, which is out in the forest. Hitomi and Kuriya were sent be their parents to get them out of the way of the adults. It saved their lives. Satoru is Yuki's niece. And me? I was taking them lunch. The only reason we're here is the demons found Yuki's place after we left. Killed her husband and burned it to the ground." He sat back with a sigh, finished with his meal.

"Hey guys?" Goku stood up. "Can I talk to you outside?" He stepped out, soon followed by the other three."

He looked at them, golden eyes wide. "I know we're not 'Champions of Justice,' but have you seen this?" He motioned toward the burned town, bodies and dropped items littering the street. "Look at what the demons here did. If we're going to stop this, we have to take care of the whole thing. How do we know if they're not gonna come back and kill the five of them. Five! A whole village reduced to five people. We have to stop this. I say we kick some demon ass. Maybe save Hitomi and the rest of them." He lowered his arms which had been gesturing freely throughout his outburst. 

Hakkai nodded silently, and Gojyo joined him. They would help. The three of them looked expectantly at Sanzo, who's only answer was to pull out his gun, and carefully load it.

"So you're in." 

Hakkai opened the door of the house and stuck his head in. "Thank you so very much for the meal, but we have to go now. Don't worry about the demons coming back, but soon you should head to the next town. I doubt supplies here will last long."

After goodbyes, Hakkai unwound Hakuryuu from his neck. "Hakuryuu, transform!"

They piled into the jeep and drove off in the direction the demons had come from. Following the trail was easy. The demons had left a clear path of destruction in their wake. After a few miles, Sanzo had them get out and walk quietly, as so not to alert the demons of their presence.

Soon, all four of them heard voices, angry shouting and yelling. They could see light from a fire coming through the trees, flickering madly as they came closer. They crept closer, silently, until they came to the demon camp. Peering through the trees they saw about one-hundred demons, as Taisha said, and tents set up near the large fire.

"Think we can take 'em?" Goku whispered, leaning closer the others.

"Yes," Gojyo answered. "But look." he pointed at the middle of the camp next to the fire, showing what the others had already noticed. Twenty demons, strong men with weapons, guarded a seated figure with his or her back to them.

Sanzo pushed his head into the conversation. "That person is important to the demons. Don't kill that one. Maybe he or she can tell us why they did this." His face was unreadable in the flickering fire light, but Goku knew that no demon would stand before his gun.

"Ready?" Gojyo asked.

They nodded, as one. 

"Go!" Sanzo shouted.

They ran into the camp, knocking down demons as they came. Hakkai conjuring chi balls, Gojyo wrapping his weapon's chain all about, Sanzo firing round after round into the masses, and Goku flattening demons with ________. Soon, heaps of bodies filled the clearing, but still more came.

Gojyo knocked a demon into the protected circle, almost knocking the figure down. Still it did not move from it's hunched over position.

"Idiot!" Sanzo shouted over the fray. "When I say don't hurt them, that means to be careful not to!" He fired a bullet into demon coming up behind Gojyo. "And watch your back." 

The first casualty was Hakkai. As he caught his breath from a particularly powerful chi ball, killing a crowd of demons, one sneaked in behind him, wielding a heavy bladed sword that would be effective, regardless of its owner's ability.

Goku spotted the trouble. "Hakkai!" he yelled, just in time.

But as Hakkai whirled, chi ball growing in hand, another demon slashed his unprotected back. A long rip appeared in his shirt back, with blood welling up from the wound and spilling down his back. He killed the original threat while Gojyo finished off the one that had wounded him. 

And as quickly as it had started, it was over, with Sanzo and Goku slaying the remaining few and Gojyo wrapping cloth over Hakkai's wound.

They stood together, ready to confront the demons seeming leader, though it had done nothing during the fight, when Sanzo staggered, clutching his right leg. When Gojyo lowered him to the ground, and moved the robe away from the spot, a long slash, from thigh to ankle was revealed, blood spilling to the ground. 

"Sanzo!" Goku cried.

"He'll be alright," Hakkai assured him. "Just help me get him to that glade over there, the one we passed on the way over. It's not far, and it's not piled up with demon bodies, stained with blood.

They, with some protest from Sanzo, got him to the grassy clearing and set him down. Hakkai immediately set about healing his leg. When the wound was closed, Sanzo looked up. "Go get the demon's leader. I want to ask him some questions, starting with the destruction of that town."

Hakkai and Gojyo walked off to do that, while Goku stayed with the grumbling monk.

Hakkai and Gojyo arrived back at the camp finding the figure still hunched over in the sitting position. 

They walked over to find a demon girl. Her short black skirt barely covered her knees as she sat Indian style. The tight shirt she wore was blue, and as covered with repaired rips as anyone's would be living in a camp in the forest. Medium length light brown hair spilled over her tilted face, peering down at her lap.

"You. Up. Now." Gojyo nudged the girl cautiously with his toe.

She ignored him, fiddling with something in her lap, and twitching a booted foot.

"I said _now_!" He nudged her harder.

She looked up, hazel eyes behind glasses annoyed. "Not now, I'll be there later. I'm just at the _good _part!"

Hakkai looked at Gojyo with amazement. "She ignored this fight because she was _reading a book_!"

She looked down again. "Yes. Now go away."

"I think not." Gojyo leaned forward and snatched the volume from her grasp. He stuck it in his pocket and grabbed her arm, Hakkai taking the other.

"Give that back!" She jerked her arms, trying to get out of his grasp, not succeeding. 

They dragged her back to the clearing where Sanzo and Goku awaited her arrival. She kicked and screamed and protested the thievery of her book. They got her to the glade and sat her firmly down in front of Sanzo, hands on her shoulders.

"Give me my book back!"

"No," Sanzo said calmly, while studying her. She looked to be eighteen or nineteen, twenty tops. Her hair was mussed from the struggling and her glasses hung off of one ear. Delicate hands with short claws snatched at the air in front of Gojyo, not quite reaching. Her pointed ears poked out from under her tangled hair, cheap metal ear-bobs hung from them.

"Why did the demons kill the town?" Sanzo leaned as far forward as his seated position would allow.

She shrugged. "How in the goddesses name should I know? Why the hell did you kill the demons I was with?"

Sanzo leaned closer, if possible. "First of all, I don't believe you don't know. Second of all, they killed a whole town. We took revenge for the few left, and third of all, I'm asking you questions. Answer them." And his gun was in his hand, pointed at her head. "I'll ask that question again soon. For now, what's you name and what were those demons to you? I noticed you only called them, 'the demons you were with,' not your family or tribe."

"Won't give you my name 'till I've got yours," she replied stubbornly, though they noticed a quiver in her voice as she looked at the gun. 

"Very well. Give her your names," he gestured at the others.

"Goku," came the grudging reply.

"Hakkai."

"Gojyo."

"Priest Genjo Sanzo."

She scowled, obviously not expecting them to listen. "Ryuko."

"All right Ryuko, what were those demons to you? Your family, friends, kidnappers?"

"No clue. That's where I grew up." 

"Sure. I believe you." Gojyo leaned forward, his hands tightening their grip. "You were the only girl in the camp. Also, they all had black hair, while yours is brown. You're not family and you have to be important to them."

"So what if I am?"

"Important enough to get consulted on matters like, oh say, the mass slaughter of a village!" Hakkai joined the conversation, glowering at her, his sunny disposition gone at the thought of Hitomi's village.

"I may be important to them, but not for that kind of stuff. And what's the big deal? They were just humans? You all aren't, with the exception of trigger happy here. Are monks even allowed to carry guns?"

"Just a human, huh?" Sanzo put his gun to the side, keeping in easy reach. Ryuko noticed that detail. "If we're just unnoticeable humans, why did you attack that village? If humans are so low, why did you stay with them until all the trouble started? If humans don't count, why do you pay attention to us at all?"

"I told you, it's not my decision to make, whether or not they attack a village! I sit here at camp and act like a lady for all the remaining guys! If it had been my decision, they wouldn't have attacked at all! If I was in charge, those lives would have been spared! I'm just traveling with them 'till we get t--!" She realized she was giving them more information then they asked, and shut her mouth.

"Get where?" Gojyo let go of her shoulder and peered into her face. "Where were you headed with them?"

"None of you damn business!" Ryuko spit in his face and wrenched away from Hakkai; she sprinted to the woods and took off running through the trees.

"Goku! Get her!" Sanzo struggled to his feet as Goku dashed after her.


	2. Caught with questions

"Goku! Get her!" Sanzo struggled to his feet as Goku dashed after her.

He ran through the woods, following Ryuko, with the others close behind. Pushing aside branches and tripping over roots, he looked up and saw Ryuko having the same troubles. Seeing this gave him an idea. He signaled for the others to stay back, and speeded up, this time staying to her right. With him on that side, she automatically veered to the left. 

'She'll turn in a big circle, all the way back to the others,' he thought. 

'Damn it. That kid-Goku-what-ever-the-hell-his-name-is. Too damn fast!' Ryuko thought frantically to herself as she sprinted through the woods, Goku gaining quickly. 'I'm just glad he hasn't taken off his power limiter. Then I'd been in deep shit.' Struggling to stay ahead, she bent down and pulled off her boots, sticking them through her belt. Then she recognized familiar ground. She was back at the glade!

Ryuko burst into the clearing with no sign of any of them, including Goku, except the monk standing before her. He turned the safety off on his gun and raised it to point steadily at her chest.

Ryuko walked slowly forward, hands in the air, when she heard a noise to her right. She winced, but could not afford to take her eyes from Sanzo. She came up to the gun, and slowly lowered her body to sit down. In a moment, her feet shot out and caught Sanzo in the chest, knocking him backwards onto the ground. She then whirled around to investigate the noise she had heard. And turned right into the shaft of Gojyo's weapon. 

She fell like a rock, blood trickling down her face from a large lump on her head.

Waking up, the first thing Ryuko noticed was her headache. Her head pounded, making it hard to think. When that was in order, she found her hands and feet tied. Struggling to sit up, she found herself on the floor in some sort of car.

Seeing her awaken, Goku bent down. "Sanzo said you're not supposed to wake up until we get there." 

She tried to speak, but after her second croak, something hit the side of her skull again, causing her to black out once more.

The second time she woke, she was covered to her chin with a feather blanket, laid down on a small bed in a room with two other beds. Both were occupied. By who, she could not tell.

Sitting up, she threw off the covers and found herself clothed, though not in her original outfit. She was wearing a short blue dress and soft black slippers. She wondered who had dressed her. 

Ryuko saw her clothes folded at the foot of the bed. She grabbed them and shoved them in her waistband. She stood up and folded the covers back over some pillows heaped in the center. 

One of her boot fell to the ground, thumping softly. Ryuko froze as someone in another bed turned over, the covers whispering against their body. She stood still for a moment, barely breathing. 

After a minuet, she relaxed, her body drooping against the bed. She bent down to pick up the boot, and spotted a thin shining thread running across the floor, much like a spider's line. She peered at it a moment, then shook her head. She had more important things to worry about, like escaping the kidnappers. Couldn't those idiots understand that she wasn't a part of the war? She was to be delivered to Lord Kougaji as a good-will gift from the band. It was an ingenious plan, she had to admit. Surely none of them had though it up themselves.

Ryuko shook her head and picked up the fallen boot and thrust it through her waistband with its pair and her old clothing. She carefully stepped between the beds. Checking, she saw they contained the human, Sanzo, and the demon that smelled of humans, Hakkai. Ryuko bent her head to examine at the small dragon sleeping on the pillow. It was a shimmery white in the moonlight, and its small back rose with each breath it took.

'Glory,' she thought. 'A dragon. It's so beautiful.'

She tiptoed her way to the window, which she cracked open. Gazing out, she saw the room was on the first story, the ground easily accessible from this window. 

Ryuko smirked. 'Could they have made this any easier for me?' she thought to herself sarcastically.

She opened the shutters farther and hoisted herself onto the sill, swinging her legs around to dangle out. Again she saw a glistening line, but thought nothing of it.

Ryuko jumped down, landing on bent legs. She stood up and spied a sign by the inn door; '**_No_** **_Demons._**'

"I wonder how they got me in here," she muttered, fingering the point of her ear with short claws. "I sure as hell didn't walk."

She pulled her skirt up with one hand and started running away from the inn. Three yards later, something pulled on her ankle, sending her sprawling. She twisted over and sat up; grabbing her ankle, she found a thin line attached to it.

"That's the only good thing about fish line," a low voice came to her. "You can't see it but it's strong as hell."

She looked up and saw Sanzo, the top of his robes down revealing a shiny black shirt that fit him like skin. His gun was pointed at her once more.

"Damn it. Damn it, damn it damn it." Ryuko slashed at the line holding her imprisoned, but to no avail. Sanzo advanced on her, his revolver aiming steadily for her head.

"What the hell's wrong with you perverts?! Get this thing off of me!"

By now, the others were coming out as well. Gojyo's weapon was out and pointed at her. 

"I think not." Sanzo's voice was low and quiet. "You're going to answer out questions, or tomorrow we'll knock you out again."

"No need," she growled. Ryuko breathed out and closed her mouth; pinching her nose shut, she felt her lungs struggle for air. 'Air they're not going to get,' she thought grimly. Her chest burned at her heart speeded up, making her blood move faster. As her pulse rapidly rose, the edge of her vision turned black, clouding her mind. The last thing she saw before she fell was Hakkai. He ran towards her as she dropped, catching her. Then she lost all consciousness.

The first thing Ryuko saw when she woke up again was the sun. She opened her eyes, moaned, and shut them again, squeezing them tightly shut. "Nnngh. Turn off the sun." She felt the heat depart from her face as someone leaned over her. Opening her eyes again, she blinked, then attempted to sit up. 

As soon as she had shifted positions, someone began pounding on her skull. 'No,' she thought dully. 'Inside.' Her head throbbed from its lack of oxygen, and thumping noises were reaching her ears. She swayed a moment, then rested her aching head in her hands.

Cool fingers were placed over her own, and a soft light filled her eyes. When the hand was lifted from her own, her headache had dulled to a minimum. "Thanks," she murmured drearily, looking into one green eyes and one monocled eye.

Ryuko looked around, noticing they were back in the inn. "No demons," she muttered.

Hakkai nodded, apparently hearing her, as the dragon flapped over to her. "Kyuu?" it inquired. 

"That's Hakuryuu," Hakkai told her.

"Aahh. How imaginative. I could not have thought of a better name," she told him sarcastically.

"If you hadn't noticed, you're in no position to mock us." Gojyo had come up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. 

"Yeah," Goku added, walking over.

He and Gojyo helped her onto the bed and sat her on the side. 

Sanzo came in and sat on the chair in front of her; he pulled out his gun, carefully turned off the safety, and laid it on the table beside him.

"I'm not in a good mood," he told her as the other found various perches around the room. "Usually, we would be on the road and halfway to the next town by now. Today, we're still here and, better yet, we've got a spoiled child with the blood of a town on her hands that refuses to answer questions. 

"Go figure," she murmured.

"Now," Sanzo picked up his gun and slowly turned it over in his hands. "I'm going to ask a few questions. Will you answer them?

"No," she answered, and leaped off the bed, dashing for the open window.

In a moment, Goku and Gojyo had caught her and knocked her to the ground, with Gojyo holding her hair and a hand on the back of her neck, and Goku sitting on her back with her arms twisted behind in a death grip.

"Damn it! Get off of me!" Ryuko's voice was muffled by the floor, her face mashed up against the bare boards.

BANG

The bullet whizzed by her head, creating a hole in the floor barely an inch from her nose.

"Get up," Sanzo nudged them off of her, grabbed her hair himself, and pulled her on to the bed in a sitting position. "Now, I want to leave, and the next bullet's going to hit you. Will you answer my questions?" He held up the gun warningly and pointed it at her.

Ryuko sat up straighter and spit out blood; she had bitten her tongue in the fall and it had bled.

"Fine, damn it!" she glared at him.

"Good. We'll start from the beginning. What's your name?"

"My name is Ryuko," she replied in an icily tone.

"Why did those demons kill the villagers?"

"How in the goddesses name should I know? I told you that already. That's not my job."

"Then what is your job?" Goku butted in.

Sanzo glared at him, but continued the question. "Why were you with them, since they're obviously not your family." 

"My job is to be a little lady and not get in the way before we get there." She pushed her glasses up her nose from where they had slipped down. "I know they're not my family, I'm just staying with them."

"Until you get where? And why are they taking you there?" Sanzo's bad mood was becoming evident. 

She scowled, but the sight of the gun prompted her to continue. "Before I was born, they kidnapped my mother while she was pregnant with me. When I was one year old, they killed her, and raised me to be one of them. With one difference; They would stay together, I was to be given as--" She hesitated, and Sanzo shifted his gun to his right hand, putting his finger on the trigger again.

"To be given as a gift to former prince Lord Kougaji!"


End file.
